Women making splash at U.S. Open of Surfing

Published: Sunday, July 30, 2000

HUNTINGTON BEACH, Calif. (AP) - Holly Beck straddled her surf board, scanning the rolling ocean water for a sign of that single wave that would carry her to glory or at least the next round of the U.S. Open of Surfing.

It never came.

But that didn't seem to matter to the fans here as the stars of women's surfing took to the waves at what some call the Super Bowl of Surfing, two weeks of competitions concluding Sunday.

Gone are the bikini-clad images made famous in the 1950s beach movies. Decked out in body suits and board shorts, these women are making waves in a sport long dominated by men.

''Now, it's socially acceptable for women to be at these competitions,'' Beck said. ''It wasn't always like that.''

Coming out of the water, the two-time national amateur surfing champ was greeted by fans looking to get her autograph along this famous strand of Southern California beach known as ''Surf City USA,'' as in the Jan and Dean rock classic, where surfers are as famous as the celebrities who come to watch them.

Five years ago, less than five percent of surfers in the World Surfing Association were women. Today, women make up an estimated 15 to 20 percent of the 1.5 million active surfers in the organization.

Hiromi Hasegawa, 29, has been surfing Hawaii's North Shore for more than a decade. She has seen the sport's popularity ebb and flow with popular culture.

''When a movie came out, like 'Point Break,' all the guys wanted to surf,'' said Hasegawa, who also competed at the Huntington Beach competition. ''There wasn't really anything like that for women. I think people just looked at it as guy's sport.''

But both she and dozens of others at the competition believe the attention paid to women's sports, in general, has helped the popularity of women's surfing.

'It's all across the board the WNBA, golf, tennis,'' Hasegawa said. ''And marketing people are taking notice. Look at all the women's beachwear and surfing gear they sell now.''

Once considered a fringe competition, the U.S. Open of Surfing is the world's largest gathering of professional and amateur surfers with the biggest attendance.

Women make up at least a third of the competitors and a large portion of the audience.

Layne Beachley, the current World Champion and favorite to win Saturday's women's finals, acknowledges the sport's popularity among women is on the rise. But she says a large disparity still exists between the surfing worlds of men and women.

Currently, women receive less than half of what men receive in monetary awards.

At the U.S. Open, women were to receive about 50 percent of what the men were expected to get.

Sponsors also tend to put more money behind male surfers, promoting them much more than women to a national audience.

''We haven't pulled the audience that men have,'' Beachley said. ''But that's changing as people realize we are good at this.''

In fact, Beachley and a handful of other professional surfers have begun lobbying for a women's surfing association, similar to the women's golf association.

''Medical care. Retirement. These are things we need ... and that will help make the sport more attractive to women,'' she said. ''Can you image a women's masters competition? How great would that be?''

It may not be a long way from reality. In recent years, surfing magazines targeting girls and women have popped up on newsstands and a few movies and television shows have prominently featured women surfers.